Collapsible cameras that can collapse their lens barrel into their camera body have been known. As the lens barrel, which protrudes from the front of the camera body while the camera works, is collapsible, the collapsible camera is handy and convenient for carrying it about. Also the lens barrel is prevented from striking against something and being damaged. Especially, since digital cameras, which have recently been widely spread, are required to have high-quality performances and compactness as well, the digital cameras generally have a lens device whose lens barrel protrudes to a certain extent for zooming and the like, and is collapsible into a rest position.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application Nos. 2003-149723 and 2004-233917 disclose a camera, wherein an element of a taking lens is removed from an optical path of the taking lens while a lens barrel of the taking lens is collapsed into a camera body, so that other lens elements are held in a room that is provided by removing the lens element. Thereby, a requisite length of the collapsed lens barrel is shortened, so that the camera body needs a less thickness for accommodating the collapsed lens barrel. The lens element removable from the optical path of the taking lens is placed close to an image forming surface, and is movable about an axis that is parallel to an optical axis of the taking lens, in a plane perpendicular to the optical axis.
Meanwhile, a camera having a device for compensating for the camera shake has been known, for example, from Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. Hei 9-146137, wherein a part of a taking lens is moved in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis of the taking lens, so as to prevent damaging an image even when the camera is shaken or jiggled at the exposure. Otherwise, the image would be blurred because of the camera shake. In an example, a lens is moved in an opposite direction to the shaking direction of the camera.
In a digital camera disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2004-274242, a CCD image sensor is moved in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis of a taking lens, by use of two actuators, which displace the CCD in two directions orthogonal to each other, e.g. vertical and horizontal directions. In this digital camera, the CCD image sensor is moved when a shake sensor detects a camera shake at the exposure, so as to correct a deviation of an image of a subject on the CCD image sensor, and thus prevent blurring or other image deteriorations that may be caused by the camera shake.
If a mechanism for removing a part of a taking lens to collapse a lens barrel compactly, and a mechanism for moving the taking lens or an image sensor perpendicularly to an optical axis so as to compensate for the camera shake are both built in a camera, the internal structure of the lens barrel would be complicated, which may enlarge the camera size or raise the camera cost.